Greater in influence on China, even than the United States, has been Japan, especially since that military clash, in 1904-05, between organ ized intelligence and the ignorance of despotism, manifest in the Russo-Japanese War. In the one case, an army and navy, in which prac tically every man could read and write, made proof, in the field and at sea, under scientific leaders, of what Japanese soldiers and sailors are capable. The struggle was not one of reli gions, or races, or civilizations, but of equally brave men under varying capacity of leader ship, and was virtually the victory of education over illiteracy, of public schools over repression and ignorance. While the battle of Mukden was pending, the writer made prediction that if the Japanese, victorious as they were sure to be, guarded from loot or dishonor the tombs of the Manchu dynasty at Mukden — in Chinese ideas, blessing or cursing of ancestry or spirits, whether of Mikado, Son of Heaven, or common folks being vastly more significant than in the case of contemporaries— significant would have theheart of China in their hands": in a word, that the Chinese would look at once to the Japanese as their models and teachers. As matter of fact, before they had fully attended to their own wounded, the Japanese set a guard around the Manchu tombs, which were kept inviolate. Thereupon, victory being assured and known throughout China, not only did the Peking government assent cordially to the pro visions of the Portsmouth treaty (q.v.) in which it had no part, promising Count Komura faithful co-operation, but from all over China students at once crossed the sea to Japan, until the schools in Tokio were embarrassed by the largeness of the invasion. No fewer than 20,000 Chinese young men and hundreds of girls, from 1904 to 1910, studied in Japan from a few months to six years. The overwhelming majority of them were found to be, in the eyes of the Peking government, seditious and many were openly plotting to destroy the Man chu dynasty. Returning home, they began direct agitation for a change of government, this time in co-operation, financially and morally, with their countrymen in America, Hawaii and in other lands. From the first the note of their public harangues and secret meetings was this— "Let us gain the world's sympathy. Refrain from injury to the life and property of the foreigners. If we do not, our cause is lost. Let us strike at the Manchus for a new China and make clear our object to the world, accept ance of modern conditions; friendship, not isolation.° The last of the 35 or more (general or local) dynasties that ruled China was the Great Bright (Ta Tsing) or Manchu, whose Tartar chieftains began to be powerful about A.D. 1500. Summoned early in the 17th century by a faction of the Ming emperors, to help in a civil struggle, these men of the horse and tent rode into China like a whirlwind. Once in and securing victory for their patrons, and seeing at once the wealth and weakness of the land, they refused to return. In 1644 the Ming dynasty ended. Beginning the conquest of the empire, the Manchus compelled all subjects to shave the fore-skull and adopt the queue, as the symbol of loyalty. The Manchus camped in China as the Turk in Europe, virtually mo nopolizing the military and most of the civil offices and revenues, keeping apart from the Chinese, but in time yielding to luxury, weak ening in their primitive race-fibre, losing their language and customs, and virtually being con quered by the superior brain and ability of the people they ruled. At first the Manchus seemed to be "the most improvable race in Asia," but in the end, while the Chinese yielded notably to the spirit of the age, the Manchus appeared for the most part incapable of responding to the necessities of the modern world. Reformers and thinking men saw that their continuance in office boded disaster and meant the ultimate partition of China by foreigners. Young men educated abroad, on coming home, found the situation intolerable. Already two generations of reading people (probably 8 or 10 per cent of the whole population of the empire) had been enlightened; first, by the teachings of Christian missionaries; second, by the floods of printed matter, in Chinese, sent out by the Society for the Diffusion of General and Chris tian Knowledge, in which books on science, true history and biography of famous men and women of the West were numerous; and third by those tens of thousands of Chinese who had lived abroad. The death of the Emperor and Empress Dowager, in November 1908, and the appointment of Prince Chun as regent of the infant named to fill the throne hastened the inevitable. The Peking government, compelled to read the signs of the times and yielding to pressure, promised a modern constitution and a national legislature, sent commissions abroad to study systems of government, but postponed the date of that assembling of the Diet, which would mean in effect the transfer of power from the Manchus to the people. This postponement, with the dismissal of Yuan Shi Kai from all his offices, as the result of a Manchu reaction, served only to irritate the revolutionists and to precipitate their action. Now appeared a leader, a Christian and a man of science, the physician, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, converted in an American Congregational church in Hawaii and long a resident in America and in London, in which city he had been kidnapped by Minions of the legation, but released on the instant demand of the British government. With extraordinary powers of reticence, organization and influence, he spoke and acted at the right moment. In the main he represented southern China. Prob ably seven-tenths of the new men, working for the reform of China, were educated in the United States. In the north, the man of des tiny was Yun Shi Kai, a worthy pupil and successor to Li Hung Chang. Meanwhile the elections to and formation of provincial assem blies proceeded, following the Japanese prece dent for the development of constitutional gov ernment. After riots at Changsha, in 1910, and troubles in various places, the revolutionary movement became general and Wuchang was captured by the insurgents. So serious was the situation that Yuan Shi Kai was recalled to power, but the Imperial troops made little way and many of them as well as the Imperial navy went over to the other side, the educated classes sympathizing with the reformers and the men of the new army being well armed and skil fully led. The ability of the Chinese to fight under competent leaders had been first demon strated by an American adventurer, Frederick G. Ward, of Salem, Mass., who drilled, organ ized and led to battle the force which, after Ward's death in 1862, under °Chinese Gordon" became the Ever Victorious Army and nucleus of China's modern military power. In late days, the grateful Peking government erected a memorial temple in his honor. There were some battles, in 1911, and much destruction of property, but on the whole the revolution in China was comparatively bloodless. One notable
innovation was the presence on the field of battle of doctors and trained nurses. Strenu ous efforts were made to remove foreigners to places of safety and even during battles the rival forces ceased firing to allow missionaries to cross the lines. By edict of 30 Oct. 1910 the Manchus, in the name of the child-emperor, granted a constitution, with a cabinet from which nobles (the only permanent nobility in China, in addition to the honorary, non-political one of the descendants of Confucius, being Manchus) were to be excluded, with pardon to all rebels and political offenders. Even this was not satisfactory and the result was the proclamation of the Chinese Republic, with a flag of five colors, the bands or stripes repre senting China, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Turkestan. In February 1911 the Ta Tsing dynasty came to an end, the republic and the dynasty, through Yuan, making terms of amicable agreement. Dr. Sun abdicated his leadership in favor of Yuan, who became first President of the Chinese Republic, the presiden tial seal being ceremoniously delivered to the Premier 29 March. Millions of Chinese have cut off their queues and have adopted, in whole or part, the common dress of the world, but probably seven-tenths of the people of the empire are conservative and opposed to• innova tions. The first troubles of the new state came from mutiny, riots and looting by the unpaid troops. At least $300,000,000 are needed to support the government, pay the soldiers and begin public works and national development on a large scale. Months of trouble and anxiety followed, because the six powers, Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Italy and Japan, though wishing to loan the necessary money to China, imPosed hateful conditions — viz., the right and power to dictate how the money should be spent and to have foreigners on the board of audit. This, to the Chinese mind, means not only loss of national sovereignty, but, sooner or later, for eign intervention. Stiffened by the precedent of Japan in 1865 and 1868, when money was borrowed in London by free men, at 10 per cent, rather than at 4 or 6 per cent, with political dictation, in order to maintain her sovereignty inviolate, China waits before accepting the gifts of the Greeks." Sun handed over the seal of the Republic to Yuan Shi Kai, who had been elected President of the Chinese Republic.
The history of China after 1 April 1911 largely centred in the personality of Yuan Shi Kai. The man of power and poise was a thoroughly typical Chinese, having never been outside of China except in Korea in 1882-85, where, beginning at the age of 23, he showed exceptional ability and vigor, especially in as serting Chinese claims and in resisting the Japanese, both in reforms and in aggressions. Born in Hunan province, in 1859, he became the pupil and favorite of Li Hung Chang, learn ing the methods of his master to perfection; especially in those arts of statecraft which balance one set of forces alien to China against another, thus dividing the counsels of the for eign ministers. He made the undertow of reaction break the force of opposing waves and often neutralized the schemes of aliens, whether these were planned from purely sordid motives or in the name of humane civilization. The idealist Sun Yat Sen resigned and transferred office and power to Yuan, the newly chosen provisional President of the United Republic, which, in theory at least, under the reorganiza tion of the government in transition from a monarchy to a republic • retained the territorial heritage of the Chinese empire intact" The provisional president, once in office, was con fronted with the inherent difficulties arising from a vast complexity of problems in a hastily created republic, which had behind it in either the people or their leaders little or none•of the experience necessary for stable federal govern ment. The fundamental fact underlying all Chinese history is the radical difference in in fluences of climate, temperament and training between the Northern and Southern man. The differences racially, historically and psychologi tally, between these types are much greater than between the ante-bellum Americans above and below Mason and Dixon's line, but less eradi cable than those drawn by surveyors are the lines that divide the men of China in inher itances, feelings and aims. The alien thinks rather of Russians and Italians, or more aria logically, of the Germanic and the Latin races in Europe, where in the south are the peoples older in history, differing in stature, complexion and mental traits together with the unsocial attitudes, to °the!' neighbors or aliens, Which self-conceit; race pride and mutual jealousies naturally breed. The southern Chinese, shorter in stature and swarthier in complexion, older in history and more subtle in mental processes, look upon the Northerners much as in every land the cultured look upon the crude. Con trasting the men in the Nanking and Canton regions, the Northerners, more mixed in an cestry, taller and more robust in body and lighter in complexion, are much younger in historic development, while simpler and more direct in mental action. Race pride is common to all Chinese, as the inheritors of the primitive culture, ancient ideals and ethics and philosophy of Confucius, but patriotism, in our sense of the word, has been nearly unknown in China except among a comparatively few.
Yuan Shi Kai and the Northerners had from the very first believed in and stood for a con stitutional monarchy, while the men of the south, led by Sun Yat Sen, were for a republic.
On this rock of sectionalism the Chinese ship of state was almost sure to suffer wreck. On accepting office Yuan Shi Kai agreed to the provisions of the Southern or Nankin constitu tion, under which a national council was to be called and a permanent president chosen by a two-thirds majority in a session at which three-fourths of the members were present. The term of the provisional government was fixed at six months, at the end of which time Yuan Shi Kai, as he declared in beginning his administration, would either retire or seek re election. The names of the chief departments were changed and great reforms were pro claimed. These to some extent were put in force. The new premier and cabinet officers were chosen on the theory of a coalition of sec tions, parties and interests. Until the new Par liament should be elected, the functions of such a body were performed by a National Council, composed of five members from each province chosen by the provincial assemblies. This Par liament was to consist of a House of Represen tatives of 596 members, chosen by those male citizens over 21 years of age who were eligible to vote at the polls; a Senate, which was to have 274 members, elected by the provincial assemblies or electoral bodies in Tibet, Mon golia and Turkestan. The army, navy and departments of justice and education were to be reorganized.